The present invention relates to a swimming pool and particularly to an indoor swimming pool assembly for a room.
One of the biggest problems with indoor swimming pools is that when they are not in use, the room in which the swimming pool is placed is effectively useless in the sense that nothing else can be done with the room. Further, since swimming pools are generally rather large, this means that there is a considerable waste of space and as space becomes less available, people are in turn less prepared to have indoor swimming pools. It is known to have an indoor swimming pool with a floor in the bottom of the pool, which floor can be raised or lowered as the case may be. When in the raised position, the floor of the swimming pool can be flush with the surrounding floor of the building. Thus effectively the swimming pool floor can be used as a building floor and the room can be used normally. There are certain problems with this in that the pool very often has to be emptied and if it is not emptied, the floor has to have holes and recesses to allow the floor to be raised in the water and this can take some considerable time. In fact, with most of these arrangements, if it has been found necessary to empty the pool each time. The floor is generally raised on hydraulic jacks and this in turn causes problems in that it is not possible, for example, to have a sloping floor in the pool since such a sloping floor would not be suitable, when raised, for ordinary use. Also, because the floor is submerged, there are general difficulties of raising something that is wet which can take some considerable time to dry. In many instances, while in theory the floor of the pool is raised to turn the swimming pool area into a dry area, it does not happen in practice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,506 (Nohl et al) describes another type of swimming pool cover for an indoor pool which is designed to form a supporting floor when in place that is a continuation of the existing floor and which can be raised up vertically when the pool is to be used and become a false ceiling. A very elaborate construction is provided in which the cover is provided with vertical guides in the form of posts which support the cover as it is raised and lowered. The problem with such an arrangement is that there is now ancillary equipment within the room which thus causes some obstruction within the room.
The present invention is directed towards providing an improved construction of such a swimming pool cover which will obviate the need to remove water from the pool and further, which will provide a cover than can be readily easily raised and lowered.
The main problem with such a cover is to ensure that the cover can be raised and lowered so as to always nest within the pool to form an extension of the floor and that this can be done safely and efficiently.
In accordance with the invention, there is provided an indoor swimming pool assembly for a room having a room floor, room walls and a ceiling, the swimming pool is recessed in the room floor and has a pool floor and pool side walls. The swimming pool also has a swimming pool cover which can be raised vertically from a position covering the pool to form portion of the room floor to a raised position above the pool and adjacent the ceiling to effectively form portion of the ceiling. The invention provides a cover which is suspended from the ceiling by flexible connectors and an associated powered winch; the flexible connectors are releasably connected to the cover and a winch controller and an associated cover stability detector is provided whereby during movement of the cover, the winch is stopped if the cover moves out of the horizontal or rotates relative to the room floor by more than preset amounts. In this way, the safe and accurate positioning of the cover either in the pool to form an extension of the floor or against the ceiling, is accurately and safely controlled. Any failure of any of the lifting equipment or any movement of the cover out of the horizontal and vertical position above the pool will be immediately detected and will cause the pool cover to stop being raised or lowered until the fault has been corrected.
Ideally, the flexible connectors are connected to a lifting frame at spaced-apart locations, the lifting frame having upper and lower faces, side edges and mounting releasable connectors for engagement with the pool cover and in which the cover stability detector is mounted on the lifting frame for control of the movement of the lifting frame when it is not attached to the cover. In this way, by separating the lifting frame from the cover, it is possible to ensure that the connectors are easily mounted on the cover without the need for human intervention. This further improves the safety of the operation.
Ideally, each releasable connector comprises a threaded socket mounted in the cover; and a threaded connector probe and drive motor assembly mounted on the lifting frame, the free end of the probe projecting proud of the lower face of the lifting frame.
Preferably, the threaded connector probe tapers towards its free end and in which the threaded socket is mounted below a tapering guide having a probe receiving mouth and a reducing cross section between the probe receiving mouth and an entrance to the socket.
In one embodiment of the invention, the tapering guide is of a resilient material and ideally, an interlock proving switch is provided to confirm engagement and disengagement of each probe and socket and in which each interlock proving switch is connected to the winch controller. In this way, until the actual connector has been placed and locked in position, the assembly will not operate.
Ideally, separate locking means is provided to secure the cover in the raised position. This locking means may comprise a locking pin rigidly mounted in the room and movable laterally to engage in a socket in the side edges of the lifting frame and again ideally, an interlock proving switch is provided to confirm engagement and disengagement of each locking pin and socket and in which each interlock proving switch is connected to the winch controller.
In one embodiment of the invention, the cover stability detector is a slewing detector. Preferably, motion detection equipment is mounted in the room and connected to the winch controller whereby movement in and around the pool causes the winch to stop. In this way, one can ensure that the assembly does not operate until the room has been cleared of people at least around the periphery of the pool and indeed within the pool.
Ideally, each flexible connector comprises a pair of side-by-side wire ropes which are reeved over separate winches. The idea of reeving the various wires in such a manner that each wire of any pair originates from a different drum to the other wire, is to ensure an even work load from the winch drums in the event of uneven wire tensioning. Ideally, each wire rope will incorporate tensioning means and preferably will have a slack rope connector detector mounted below each wire rope where it runs substantially horizontally again to detect any malfunction.